08/29/2026
Pablo has only been with us for a couple months, but one thing stood out almost immediately:
He asks questions.
A lot of them. 😂
He questions techniques. He questions concepts. He wants to understand why something works, not just be told what to do. He asks for feedback, and lately, he’s been asking for opportunities to teach what he’s learning.
Last night, he taught his first No-Gi class at NEO.
What impressed us just as much happened the night before. Pablo asked if he could announce the class himself and invite his teammates to come out and support him.
That’s initiative.
Because teaching is part of learning too. When you’re responsible for explaining something to somebody else, you’re forced to understand it differently.
And Pablo’s path is only beginning.
He’s intense. He’s competitive. He’s aggressive. Those can all be tremendous strengths. Now we’re going to help him develop the other side of them: self-control, technical patience, awareness, responsibility, and understanding what it means to have someone else’s development and safety under his care.
Then class ended.
He sparred. Put the gloves on. Lifted weights. Trained with his teammates.
Because becoming a leader doesn’t mean separating yourself from the room.
It means learning how to contribute more to it.
Practitioner. Competitor. Teammate. Instructor.
Different roles. Different lessons. Same path: growth.
And somewhere along that path, apparently, you also have to learn the 1-2-clap. 😂👏
THE PATH | Learning to Lead
Everything You Need to Grow.
